Aykroyd originally wrote the role of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters ( 1984 ) with Belushi in mind, but rewrote the part for Bill Murray after Belushi died.

In 2009, Aykroyd along with Harold Ramis, wrote and appeared in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which also featured Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Brian Doyle-Murray.

Aykroyd wrote the introduction and accompanied his father on a series of promotional activities, including launches in New York City and Toronto, an appearance on Larry King Live and various other public relations initiatives.

Aykroyd and Ramis initially wrote the script with roles written especially for Belushi, Eddie Murphy, and John Candy ; but Belushi died during the writing of the screenplay, and neither Murphy nor Candy would commit to the movie, so Aykroyd and Ramis made some changes and polished a basic, science-fiction-oriented screenplay for their final draft.

" Two months later, Aykroyd downplayed Murray's comments, saying Stupnitsky and Eisenberg " wrote Bill the comic role of a lifetime, and the new Ghostbusters and the old are all well represented in it "; they wrote a " strong first draft " that Aykroyd and Ramis would work on.

Shore wrote the music for Canadian magician Doug Henning's magical / musical Spellbound in 1974, and from 1975 until 1980, he was the musical director for Lorne Michaels ' hugely influential late-night NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live appearing in many musical sketches, including Howard Shore and His All-Nurse Band, and dressed as a beekeeper for a John Belushi / Dan Aykroyd performance of the Slim Harpo classic I'm a King Bee.

Devo also contributed two songs, " Theme from Doctor Detroit " and " Luv-Luv " to the 1983 Dan Aykroyd film Doctor Detroit, and produced a music video for " Theme from Doctor Detroit " featuring clips from the film with live action segments.

The Chambers were used as part of the location for The House of Mirth an adaptation of the novel by Edith Wharton by Terence Davies starring Gillian Anderson and Dan Aykroyd.

In August 1979, Shearer was hired as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live, one of the first additions to the cast, and an unofficial replacement for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who were both leaving the show.

Parodies of Popeil's infomercials were done on the comedy show Saturday Night Live by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy and the " Veg-O-Matic " may have provided comedian Gallagher inspiration for the " Sledge-O-Matic " routine since the 1980s.

Aykroyd gained fame on the American late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live, where he was a writer and the youngest cast member for its first four seasons, from 1975 to 1979.

Aykroyd and Belushi were scheduled to present the Academy Award for Visual Effects in 1982, but Belushi died only a few weeks prior to the ceremony.

Ghostbusters became a huge success for Aykroyd as a co-creator, co-writer, and one of the lead actors ; the film's inspiration came from Aykroyd's fascination with parapsychology.

Aykroyd was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.

In February 2007, Aykroyd revealed that he would be providing voice-acting for a Ghostbusters III CGI project, though these rumours were clarified later on, that the CGI project was a next-gen video game that was currently in production.

In 2009, Aykroyd contributed a series of reminiscences on his upbringing in Canada for a charity album titled Dan Aykroyd's Canada.

On March 20, 2012, Aykroyd said he is about to work on a script for a comedy that would also star Chevy Chase.

Aykroyd also received a dubious honour in 1997, when the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal awarded him the Snuffed Candle award, for " contributing to the public's lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry.

Aykroyd also read the introduction for the audio version of the book.

Shaffer occasionally teamed up with the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players off the show as well, including work on Gilda Radner's highly successful Broadway show and as the musical director for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd whenever they recorded or performed as The Blues Brothers.

French director Louis Malle adapted the Abscam story into a film script entitled Moon Over Miami, with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi set to star, with Belushi playing a fictionalized version of Weinberg ; Belushi's death in March 1982 scuttled plans for the film.

Willow was also nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Screenplay, which lost to Cocktail and Worst Supporting Actor for Billy Barty, who lost to Dan Aykroyd for Caddyshack II.

While Aykroyd was a close friend and partner with fellow cast member John Belushi and shared some of the same sensibilities, Aykroyd was more reserved and less self-destructive.

Belushi and Aykroyd became fixtures at the recording studio, while fellow Blues Brother Steve Cropper called Cherokee his producing home.

The same movie featured a cameo by fellow SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd as Ghostbuster Ray Stantz.

The film also features cameos from Idle's fellow Python Michael Palin, several SNL cast members including Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd ( as well as SNL writers Al Franken and Tom Davis ), Bianca Jagger as Dirk McQuickly's wife Martini, Ronnie Wood as a Hells Angel, and Mick Jagger, Paul Simon and Roger McGough as themselves.

Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952, at the Ottawa General Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Had I lived in a different town I don't think that this would have happened, because it was just the confluence of educated government workers, and then also all the colleges in the area, Ottawa University, Carleton, and all the schools — these people were interested in blues culture .< ref > Still on a mission from God ; interview with Dan Aykroyd by Roger Gatchet, May 18, 2007, www. austinsound. net.

Some assert that it was Ottawa artist Arthur II who joined the band to play drums and that, at best, Aykroyd was a member of the audience.

Among the well-known people who hail from the Ottawa Valley, are former governor-general and broadcaser Adrienne Clarkson, Alanis Morissette, Margaret Atwood, Lorne Greene, Bryan Murray, Terry Murray, Frank Finnegan, Bruce Cockburn, Peter Jennings, Matthew Perry, Dan Aykroyd, Mark Redman, Tom Green, Rich Little, Paul Anka, Alan Verch and Princess Margriet, sister of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

Daniel Edward " Dan " Aykroyd, ( born July 1, 1952 ) is a Canadian comedian, singer, actor and screenwriter.

Aykroyd was born with syndactyly, or webbed toes, which was revealed in the movie Mr. Mike's Mondo Video and in a short film on Saturday Night Live titled " Don't Look Back In Anger.

When they met in a club Aykroyd frequented, Aykroyd put on a blues record to play in the background, and it stimulated a fascination with blues in Belushi, who was primarily a fan of heavy rock bands at the time.

Aykroyd educated Belushi on the finer points of blues music and, with a little encouragement from then-SNL music director Paul Shaffer, it led to the creation of their Blues Brothers characters.

The earliest of these was the Blues Brothers, the dark-suited alter egos of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, which spawned two movies and an actual blues record.

* July 1 – Dan Aykroyd, comedian, actor, screenwriter and musician

In 2003, Belushi and Dan Aykroyd released the album Have Love, Will Travel, and participated in an accompanying tour.

Popular comedy stars in the 1980s included Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.

Many of the original cast of Saturday Night Live came from The Second City and the franchise has produced such comedy stars as Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Bob Odenkirk, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Eugene Levy, Steve Carell, Chris Farley, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.

Dan Aykroyd portrays Mack Sennett in the 1992 movie Chaplin.

The halftime show was titled " Blues Brothers Bash " and featured actors Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, and James Belushi as the Blues Brothers.

" Later in the film, when the brothers are driving rapidly through Chicago, Elwood ( Dan Aykroyd ) comments " If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza.

He grew up in the Canadian capital, where his father, Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer, worked as a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Aykroyd's great-grandfather, Samuel Augustus Aykroyd ( 1855 – 1933 ), a dentist, had been a mystic and had been involved in Spiritualism.

This would greatly interest Aykroyd, who stated: " All that stuff was hanging around the old farmhouse I grew up in, so I was kind of steeped in it.

Aykroyd was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and had intended to become a priest until the age of seventeen.

This recollection of Aykroyd is subject to challenge.

Aykroyd brought a unique sensibility to the show, combining youth, unusual interests, talent as an impersonator and an almost lunatic intensity.